FILE - In this Jan. 18, 2019 file photo, former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke attends his sentencing hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago, for the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald. Illinois' attorney general is holding a news conference with the prosecutor who won a conviction against the white Chicago police officer who killed black teenager Laquan McDonald. Neither Attorney General Kwame Raoul nor Kane County State's Attorney Joseph McMahon have said what Monday's news conference is about. It comes after Raoul's office signaled that it may ask the Illinois Supreme Court to intervene over what prosecutors see as a too lenient sentence for Jason Van Dyke. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
CHICAGO – Illinois' attorney general on Monday asked the state's highest court to review what prosecutors consider to be a too lenient sentence for the white Chicago police officer who fatally shot black teenager Laquan McDonald.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the special prosecutor who won the conviction against Jason Van Dyke said they believe Judge Vincent Gaughan did not properly apply the law when he sentenced Van Dyke to six years and nine months in prison. In a rare move, Raoul and Kane County State's Attorney Joseph McMahon filed a request with the Illinois Supreme Court seeking an order that would send the case back to Gaughan for a new sentence.
Absent a new sentence and with credit for good behavior, Van Dyke will likely serve only around three years for firing 16 bullets into McDonald in 2014. Dashcam video of the shooting released by the city in 2015 showed Van Dyke continued to fire as the 17-year-old crumpled to the street and lie on the ground. The sentence was the first imposed on a Chicago police officer for an on-duty shooting in a half century.
Monday's move is the latest chapter in an ongoing saga that has included massive demonstrations, the firing of the police superintendent by the mayor and the ouster of the county's top prosecutors by voters a few months later, the judge's ruling to sentence Van Dyke to less than seven years in prison was met with anger and disappointment by activists.
Raoul reacted quickly. In one of his first moves after taking office in January, he announced he would review the sentence Gaughan had handed down just days earlier.
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For the AP's complete coverage of the Jason Van Dyke case: https://apnews.com/tag/LaquanMcDonald
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